All the women here feel very insecure. They don't know what will happen next

Manorama's neighbour

"If we made a mistake, she corrected us. We are a poor family, she was like a mother to us, she brought us up."

"She always tried to make others happy. But she never had any happiness herself, her life was full of troubles," he says.

Outside Manorama's house, some 300 women sit and watch a video of a protest march held by a dozen Manipuri women on a television screen.

"We are all Manorama's mothers," says one protestor and the audience greets the remark with applause. Not one eye in the gathering is dry.

Anger

Watching the video is one of Manorama's neighbours, Arkewan Gulsana. She says she is shocked by her killing.

"She was a simple girl, like any of us. She made a living through weaving clothes and helped her mother look after her brothers. She was a friend of my sister-in-law's and visited our house sometimes."

Ms Gulsana is furious with the security forces and holds them responsible for her death.

Women on a protest outside Manorama's home

"The soldiers killed her," she alleges. "Now they are lying, telling people that she was an expert in explosive materials.

"They say they found weapons on her, but that's an utter lie. They tortured her, this is a clear case of custodial death."

The Assam Rifles categorically deny torture.

Another neighbour, a young woman, says she feels violated by what happened to Manorama.

"It's like it's happened to me. All the women here feel very insecure. They don't know what will happen next."

In Manipur, women have traditionally enjoyed a lot of respect. Crimes against women are rare and perhaps that explains the people's anger at Manorama's killing.

A young unmarried woman is treated as a goddess here and Manorama has now become an icon for Manipuris.

A local human rights lawyer, Kotiswar Singh, says there have been similar allegations against security forces in the past too, but this time the people's patience has run out.

"The question no longer is whether Manorama was an insurgent or not," he says.

"The question now is the way she was killed and the way the security forces carried out the entire operation."